


The Enchanted Rabbit Whisperer

by carnivalinsidemyhead



Category: Take That
Genre: Bedsharing, Cuddling, Fluff, M/M, fairytale, just a whole lot of sweetness really, magical powers! mark, royalty!gary, transformation spells
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:21:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22163233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carnivalinsidemyhead/pseuds/carnivalinsidemyhead
Summary: Once upon a time there was a handsome prince named Gary who, through no fault of his own, was turned into a rabbit.
Relationships: Mark Owen/Gary Barlow
Kudos: 15





	The Enchanted Rabbit Whisperer

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to melmalalune for creating art for this when I told her the story concept: 
> 
> https://melmalalune.tumblr.com/post/190084346809/not-my-best-work-by-a-long-shot-and-background

Once upon a time there was a handsome prince named Gary who, through no fault of his own, was turned into a rabbit. 

Well, perhaps he shouldn’t have heckled the court magician during his last performance. But who would have thought the bumbling old fool actually knew real magic?

At any rate, he was stuck as a rabbit. A very frightened rabbit who wouldn’t let anyone near him. And no matter how much the king and queen tried to apologize on his behalf to the offended magician, he refused to accept their apologies and reverse the spell.

“The apology must come from him.”

“How can he apologize? He’s a rabbit for Pete’s sake. He can’t even talk!”

“The words themselves may come from another but he has to be genuinely sorry. And I don’t believe he is.”

They asked him how they were supposed to be able to tell when a rabbit was sincerely remorseful. 

“You need an Enchanted Rabbit Whisperer. I just so happen to know the name of one in the village.”

And so it was that Prince Gary the rabbit came to live with Mark the rabbit whisperer.

The king and queen were rather skeptical that such a small young boy was an Enchanted Rabbit Whisperer but the magician assured them that looks could be deceiving.

“I will take very good care of your son, Your Majesties. I promise you that.”

He gave them a reassuring smile and they found that they believed him. 

“Our son is in good hands,” they declared as they headed back home to the palace. 

“Aren’t you a handsome fella?” Mark sat down in the grass and cooed at the soft golden rabbit nervously twitching next to him. 

“Such pretty green eyes you have.” 

He petted him gently, continuing to speak in a soothing tone. 

Prince Gary flinched but didn’t run away. 

“It’s alright, fella, it’s alright.” 

He sat very still. Occasionally he would stroke Prince Gary’s head and coo a bit of soothing nonsense. 

After a long while, Prince Gary stopped trembling and tentatively crawled into Mark’s lap and curled up and fell asleep.

“There’s a good rabbit. You have a nice rest. We’ll talk when you’re ready.”

Prince Gary woke at sundown, staring wildly around him. Where was he? And what was he doing sitting on this boy’s lap? Who was this boy? And wait...was he...was he human again?

He coughed loudly and regarded Mark with a rather arrogantly outraged air.

“Do you realize that you have kidnapped a prince?”

Mark was unfazed. “The King and Queen sent you here to me.”

“You lie. Why would they do such a thing?”

“Because I am an Enchanted Rabbit Whisperer who can help break the spell on you.”

“Yes well, as you can see, it worked. I’m no longer a rabbit. Thanks for that. Good job. I’ll be going now. I’ll see that you’re properly rewarded of course.”

Prince Gary climbed off of Mark’s lap and began to head towards the road with as much dignity as he could muster.

“I’m afraid that’s not a good idea” Mark called after him, adding as an afterthought, “Your Highness.”

“Why ever not?”

“Because the spell isn’t actually broken yet. As soon as the sun rises, you’re going to be a rabbit again.” 

Prince Gary regarded Mark suspiciously.

“How do you know that?”

“Because the spell won’t be broken until you are sincerely sorry you mocked the magician. Are you sincerely sorry for that?”

Prince Gary frowned. 

“Well I’m sincerely sorry mocking him got me turned into a rabbit. Will that do?”

Mark shook his head sorrowfully. “I’m afraid it won’t, Your Highness. And I have enough power to undo the spell at nighttime but it’s beyond me to make it stay through the day.”

He added under his breath so Prince Gary couldn’t hear, “and it seems to me that you could stand to be taught a lesson.”

He stood up and nodded in the direction of his cottage. 

“It’s gotten a bit chilly. Why don’t you come inside for the night, Your Highness?”

Prince Gary hesitated. It *was* getting rather chilly and quite dark and he had no clue where to go if he left.

“I’ve got some lovely apple tarts cooling off on the windowsill…”

Prince Gary did love a good apple tart.

“Well..I daresay I could stay for one night…”

Mark smiled.

“A very wise decision, Your Highness.”

They were greeted at the cottage door by an old sheepdog who had been curled up on the front step having a nap while he waited for Mark. He gave a loud bark and wagged his tail happily when Mark scratched him behind his ears.

“Good old Howard. Who’s a good dog? You ready to come inside and warm up by the fire, boy?”

Howard gave an affirmative bark to Mark and a cautious sniff to Prince Gary.

“Brrf?” he cocked his head questioningly at Mark.

“Friend. Prince Gary is a friend.”

“Brrff?” He asked in a slightly different pitch. 

“Yes, he’s another rabbit.” Mark looked at Howard sternly.

“No chasing him in the morning, understand? No. Chasing.”

Howard let out a little grumble like “you never let me have any fun.”

“You let Prince Gary be and there’ll be a nice juicy bone in it for ya.”

Howard appeared to mull the offer over and then gave a short bark and a quick lick of Mark’s hand. 

“Glad you’re going to be sensible.”

Mark turned to Prince Gary. “It probably wouldn’t hurt to make friends with him tonight, though, just to be on the safe side.”

“Err...alright...um...good dog…” Prince Gary patted the top of Howard’s head gingerly.

If a dog could be said to roll his eyes, Howard definitely rolled his eyes at Mark.

“Be nice to our guest,” Mark said warningly. 

To Prince Gary he said, “Not comfortable around dogs?”

Prince Gary shook his head. “Not really an animal person, I must admit. But I guess dogs are alright as far as animals go. At least they’re not horses.” 

He shuddered as he spoke the word.

“Don’t like horses then?”

“They give me the willies they do. They always look like they’re plotting something.”

He took the apple tart and cup of tea Mark offered with a nod of thanks and continued talking after taking a bite of tart and a sip of tea. 

“I daresay you think I’m a nutter for thinking that.”

“Not really, Your Highness. Horses are very sensitive and excellent judges of character. They can sense when a person is uncomfortable around them and may perhaps be unkind to them.”

“I wouldn’t mistreat an animal!” Prince Gary spoke in a wounded tone. 

“I might not be comfortable with them but I would never be cruel.”

“Mmmm well that’s a good start. Not cruel to animals at least.”

Prince Gary didn’t much care for the unspoken implication that he was cruel to humans. He was generosity itself to his inferiors after all.

(And he had so many inferiors.)

He also had the uncanny sense that Mark was reading his mind and finding his character wanting. The impudence of it. 

He swallowed nervously. “Err so...if you’re a rabbit whisperer, where are the rabbits? I should think they’d be hopping about all over the place.”

Mark smiled. “I’m an Enchanted Rabbit Whisperer. There’s usually only one case at a time.” 

“But if you really want rabbits…” 

He clapped his hands and the rabbits in the pictures on the wall hopped out of their frames and the rabbit figurines on the shelf all hopped down to the floor.

Then he clapped them again a few moments later and they hopped back into their places.

Prince Gary’s eyes nearly jumped out of his head. 

“How did you do that?”

Mark shrugged. “Comes with the whole enchanted thing. Anyway do you want to do the sweeping or the washing up?”

Prince Gary looked at him like he’d grown a second head. 

“I’m a prince! I don’t do housework!”

Mark nodded. “You can do the sweeping then. Less chance of mucking that up.”

He handed him a broom. 

“Go on then. Get to it.”

Prince Gary started to protest again. Mark cut him off with a dismissive wave of his hand.

“You’re not at the palace, Your Highness. No one here is going to wait on you hand and foot.”

And so, grumblingly and awkwardly, Prince Gary did the first bit of manual labor he’d ever done.

Mark nodded approvingly. “Good job.” (He’d missed a corner but it was a start.)

“Tomorrow night you can help me prepare supper. Right now though, I think it’s time for bed. You’ve had rather a long day.”

Prince Gary started to say that it was barely the start of the evening and he wasn’t a child, but he found himself overcome by a yawn. It had been a rather tiring day. It seemed that being a rabbit took a lot out of him even if he didn’t do much but sleep.

“Where am I to sleep?” He asked. Mark pointed to the bed in the corner of the room that was partitioned off by a curtain. 

“Ah. Right. Err...where will you sleep?”

“With you of course.”

“I...but..you…”

“I only have the one bed, Your Highness. Don’t worry. There’s plenty of room.”

Realizing he had no choice, Prince Gary climbed into bed with Mark a short time later.

And as Mark had predicted, come sunrise he was once again a rabbit. Only instead of being terrified and alone, he was comfortingly snuggled against Mark’s chest and peacefully lulled by the sound of his heartbeat.

It soon became their routine. Prince Gary would spend the days doing Rabbit Things and the evenings talking and doing household tasks with Mark. He soon found that he liked being useful. And that he quite enjoyed Mark’s company. Although he didn’t quite know how to show that. Mark didn’t mind though. He was rather affectionate as a rabbit and spent a good portion of the day either curled up in Mark’s lap or perched on his shoulder. 

“You’re a lovely gentle soul under all your arrogance aren’t you, Your Highness?” Mark said to the rabbit as he softly stroked his ears.

And one evening Prince Gary woke up as usual curled into Mark’s lap sitting in the grass in the glow of the sunset and found that he didn’t want to move from him.

He looked up at Mark questioningly and Mark smiled down at him and squeezed his hand and kissed the top of his head.

And Prince Gary felt happier than he had ever been.

So happy he decided to make Mark a special dinner. It was just a simple meal of eggs and beans but he knew it was Mark’s favorite and he thought it was easy enough for him to do as a beginner cook.

And it was. It all turned out perfectly.

But Mark found fault with everything. The eggs were too runny, he claimed. The beans were over-salted. The toast wasn’t browned evenly. There were spots on the fork.

He was so uncharacteristically harsh that Prince Gary found himself blinking back tears and fighting off rising anger and hurt.

“I’m sorry. I thought if I did something nice for you, maybe you would appreciate it. I know it doesn’t look like much but I tried really hard to make this good.”

Mark cocked his head thoughtfully at Prince Gary. 

“Do you understand how you made the magician feel now?”

Oh.

Prince Gary nodded sheepishly. 

“I do. And I really am sorry for heckling him.”

Then, as if by magic (for that’s what it was) the magician appeared in the cottage.

“Apology accepted. I will reverse the spell at once.”

Prince Gary looked around the cozy cottage and out the window at the beautiful green rolling hills and blue skies and Howard the old sheepdog happily chasing butterflies in the grass like he was still a puppy and at Mark, beautiful, gentle, glowing, wonderful Mark.

“Would I have to go back to the palace?” He asked the magician.

“Well yes. You are the prince after all.”

“Then if you please, I would prefer to remain a rabbit and stay here.” He looked at Mark and added “if that’s alright with you?”

Mark nodded. “I would welcome the companionship. For we are becoming Very Good Friends Indeed.” He smiled at Prince Gary in a secret sort of way.

The magician coughed awkwardly. “The king and queen will be terribly cross, I’m afraid, Your Highness.”

“Tell them you could hardly refuse to go against the wishes of a prince.”

“Hmm true enough. Well then, I’m off. Best of luck to the both of you.”

As the magician predicted, the king and queen were indeed quite cross. But they agreed that the magician couldn’t have interfered with the wishes of a prince.

“Well...as long as he’s happy and well looked after, we suppose it will be alright.”

And so Prince Gary and Mark the Enchanted Rabbit Whisperer lived happily (and hoppily) ever after in the cottage as Very Good Friends Indeed.

(And perhaps a bit more. But that’s a tale for another day.)


End file.
